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Discussion - Is Sasha's Skating Brittle or Fragile?

A dear friend of mine who happened to be in Portland for the Nationals joined me during the Singles competitions. I prefaced what I thought would help her understand some of the skaters. In Sasha's case I mentioned that some fans think her skating is brittle. My friend really liked Sasha best of the whole group of skaters including the Men. She described Sasha's skating as fragile and not brittle.

How would you describe Sasha's skating? (Please, this is not for bashing!)

I do not find Sasha’s skating brittle or fragile at all. I love to watch her because I find her skating to be extremely powerful and muscular. It takes incredible strength and balance to achieve her positions on the ice. It is one thing to be flexible enough to do Biellman positions, but it takes more strength to extend the free leg without assisting with the hands. I think Sasha has the best spins and spirals and footwork of any female skater because of the strength she has to achieve amazing positions.

One reason she is criticized for being fragile is that she is heavily influenced by ballet, and her movements are light and controlled like a ballet dancer. Many people find ballet dancers to be fragile because of their lithe bodies and airy movement, but dancers are extremely strong. In fact, although Sasha is praised in the skating world for her balletic quality, I doubt she could make it as a professional dancer because most dancers are capable of achieving even more difficult positions than Sasha.

Another reason her skating is described as brittle is because of her poor jump technique and her wobbly landings. Some people are not able to enjoy performances without solid jumps, and Sasha is lacking in that area compared to her competitors, but her triples are decent enough that she can compete with great jumpers. Thankfully, she is not as deficient at jumping as Lucinda Ruh, so Sasha has been able to rise through the ranks by compensating for weak triples with superb quality on her other elements.

If I have to use chose between these two, I would say fragrile. However what she gave me the fragile feeling was not her ice, but when she sit at K&C with TT at 2003 Nationals and Worlds, 2004 with Robin. She looked so disapointed and fragile. Especialy in the interview with Peter when she sit with Michelle and Sarah after Lady's final. She looked so fragil, just make me wanted to hug her.

I don't know if it's brittle, but I do find her jumps very distracting because of the wobbly landings, flutzing, and sometimes two footed landings (exception: double axel, which she almost always lands well). The rest of her skating is beautiful to watch. She appears fragile because of her small build, except during spins because she gets a lot of speed in them. She does not have the power of some other skaters in her stroking or jumping, but she partly makes up for it by getting into difficult positions and presenting a beautiful picture. However, she does appear brittle when she makes a mistake because the program unravels from that point. I have seen her improve in the last 6 months in that respect though. It may simply have to do with growing up.